Magnetic resonance laparoscopy: A new non-invasive technique for the assessment of chronic viral liver disease

Hepatol Res. 2013 Aug;43(8):836-45. doi: 10.1111/hepr.12025. Epub 2013 Feb 28.

Ogura S, Saitoh S, Kawamura Y, Sezaki H, Hosaka T, Akuta N, Kobayashi M, Suzuki F, Suzuki Y, Arase Y, Ikeda K, Kumada H.

Department of Hepatology, Toranomon Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.

Abstract

AIM: Laparoscopy-guided liver biopsy is the most accurate method for assessing liver fibrosis but have several limitations. We designed a non-invasive method, called magnetic resonance laparoscopy (MRL), based on gadolinium-ethoxybenzyl-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging, to assess liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B and C virus.

METHODS: We prospectively analyzed 49 patients with normal liver and 353 patients with chronic viral hepatitis, laparoscopic liver biopsy was performed on 109 patients and 244 patients were diagnosed as having liver cirrhosis clinically. The MRL findings of the liver surface were classified into three categories: (i) smooth (essentially smooth surface of the entire liver or with limited areas of depression); (ii) partially irregular (several interconnected depressions on the surface mainly in the left lobe of the liver); and (iii) diffusely irregular (nodules present on the liver surface). Patients with diffusely irregular liver surface was diagnosed as liver cirrhosis.

RESULTS: The liver surface changed with the progression of liver fibrosis from smooth, partially irregular to diffusely irregular, irrespective of viral type. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values for the diagnosis of cirrhosis according to the surface findings on MRL were 96%, 100%, 95% and 95%, respectively. The cirrhotic liver showed: (i) disappearance of impression of the right ribs; (ii) enlargement of the lateral segment; and (iii) atrophy of the right lobe according to Child-Pugh classification.

CONCLUSION: Our data indicated that MRL is a potentially useful non-invasive examination for evaluation of liver fibrosis associated with viral hepatitis.

© 2012 The Japan Society of Hepatology.

KEYWORDS: chronic hepatitis, gadolinium-ethoxybenzyl-diethylenetriamine pentaacetic acid, laparoscopy, multiple resonance imaging, multiple resonance laparoscopy

PMID: 23445460 [PubMed]

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